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Fan fiction
Fan gaming, normally a form of online gaming, is any type of gaming based on the Star Trek universe but not officially licensed by the studios or production companies who own the franchise. This type of gaming is generally affiliated with the World Wide Web as they are either played online or available via a downloadable client or program. Like officially licensed gaming products, these games take place outside the canon Star Trek universe. :See also: Fan fiction Role-playing simulations Star Trek role-playing (also known as simming) is a recreational activity in which fans of Star Trek adopt the character of a person in the Star Trek universe, typically on a Federation vessel. Many different groups exist for this purpose; they often use AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Internet Relay Chat (IRC), or e-mail as a means of communication. Second Life also has a strong Star Trek role-playing community. Many other groups also exist on the internet, on various Star Trek MUDs and MUSHes. Multi User Dimension A MUD a general term for any text based MMORPG on the web, commonly being connected to by use of a client, such as MUSHclient. One specific breed, a MUSH, is used for role playing more than others, and thus attracts quite alot of gamers. Trek MUSHes A TrekMUSH is a MUSH, as described above, based upon the Star Trek universe. The games, almost always Role Playing games, are usualy fairly well structured, sometimes having multiple ships with multiple available crew positions. One of the largest TrekMUSHes is Star Trek: Among The Stars. Many other smaller TrekMUSHes exist as well, and are still being created, even.. In most all cases these MUSHes are non-profit games, and are not affiliated with Paramount Pictures in any way. Organization Star Trek role-playing groups range from the highly organized, with admirals, fleets of ships, large numbers of ships and members, and stringent promotion requirements, to the loosely organized, where one member has a group of friends role-play as a tight-knit group. Online groups are common. External Links *Borderlands Trek RPG - one of the oldest Star Trek RPG's on the Internet; Borderlands has an emphasis on small tight knit role playing *United Space Federation - an online role-playing group with over 20 ships, all using AIM *Federation Sim Fleet - an online role-playing group with over 600 members and 45 games on AIM, IRC, e-mail, and message boards *Section 47 - One of the oldest Internet Star Trek role playing games. Simming is conducted on message boards. *Star Trek Simulation Forum - Has served as the chat based role-playing game of the official Star Trek website since October 2002. Remains the only simming organization currently recognized by the site. *Starfleet Legacy Alliance - another online role-playing group with AIM, IRC, e-mail, and message board ships *Soultrek - an email based role-playing group, with four ships and a starbase to choose from *The Ongoing Mission - a play by forum Star Trek RP Sim with user friendly navigation and a great crew. They are boldly going where no RP Sim has gone before. Star Trek Simulation Forum The Star Trek Simulation Forum, also known as STSF, is a simming organization that was created in 2002. Since shortly after it's launch, STSF has served as the official chat based role-playing game of startrek.com. Throughout it's existence, the forum has featured games focusing on Star Trek games taking place during The Original Series, Post-Nemesis, Late 24th Century and Enterprise eras. The organization is controlled by a senior GM Council that monitors all facets of the group. In addition to a separate website and forum, STSF has boards located on the official Star Trek website. It is home to an extensive Academy training program that boasts over eight games each week designed to help new players learn how to play. STSF is home to eight Starfleet based games. Of these, one gives players the opportunity to play in the pre-Federation era, on a Starfleet starbase and in the years leading up to the start of the 25th Century. Two games exist giving players the opportunity to serve as a member of the Romulan Empire and Klingon Empire. External Links *www.stsf.net - Website of the Star Trek Simulation Forum. United Confederation of Interstellar Planets The United Confederation of Interstellar Planets, known more commonly among its membership as UCIP, is a simming organization that was founded in 1994. Since its inception, UCIP has become known for its quality simulations and simming environment, advanced simmer training programs, and general OOC support structure. Since it's creation UCIP has grown substantially and is now home to dozens of simulations of numerous genres including Star Trek, Stargate, and Battlestar Galactica. SIMs in UCIP are grouped together into three simming divisions: United Federation of Planets, which houses all Starfleet and Federation SIMs, as well as SIMs from the Romulan Star Empire; the United Confederation Fleet, which houses SIMs that participate in a military alliance formed between the Federation, Klingon Empire, and Romulan Empire; and New Star, which houses all alternate-genre simulations such as Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica. There is one additional division within UCIP, known as the Services Division, which is tasked with providing all OOC services for the organization. The largest of UCIP's simming divisions is the United Federation of Planets and is currently headed by Major General Evelyn Harper and Commodore Jaeneva. The UFP Division is home to fifteen Starfleet simulations, divided among four fleet's, that allow players to experience what it is like to be an officer in Starfleet. Each Fleet offers SIMs a unique In Character (IC) simming environment. The UFP Division also offers simmers the opportunity to become involved in the Starfleet Marine Corps (SFMC). Starfleet Marines are found throughout SIMs in the UFP, but can also be found at Headquarters Marine Corps (HQMC), the IC Headquarters for the SFMC. HQMC also operates a marine simming project known as the 75th Rangers, which is an all-marine simming project aimed at showing players in the SFMC how a marine-oriented simulations may be conducted. External Links *UFP Division - homepage of UCIP's United Federation of Planets Division * UCF Division - Homepage of UCIP's United Confederation Fleet Division. Star-Fleet Star-Fleet, known more commonly to its membership as STF, is a bulletin-board based RPG that was originally founded on Prodigy in 1991. With the death of Prodigy, the group successfully moved to its current website, Star-Fleet.com. As such, it is one of the longest running Internet-based RPGs based off of the world of Star Trek. The organization itself boasts a wide variety of sims to choose from, although most are primarily based on the era around the Dominion War. Different simming environments include - Starbase sims, Planet-based sims, a Star Trek - The Motion Picture era based sim, and an Enterprise Era sim. In addition to 7 Fleets, the website also boasts a seperate, non-mandatory, Academy to assist members who are new to bulletin-board based RPGs learn about the environment, plus a fleet devoted to administrative tasks such as admitting new members, maintenance of the website, training of and keeping Gamemasters, and a place where new ship designs can be made and reviewed for eventual use in the fleet. External Links *Star-Fleet.com - The front page of the sim. Fan-released games FlashTrek FlashTrek is a free Flash game designed by Vex Xiang. It has gained some considerable popularity, spawning three sequels and a spin-off, FlashWars. The Original The original FlashTrek is set in an alternate timeline where the Dominion has driven the Federation and its allies back to Bajor. The wormhole has been collapsed, but it was too late. You start as a trader in a ''Danube''-class runabout and can work your way up to a ''Sovereign''-class. It includes the ''Enterprise''-D from "All Good Things..." as a "super ship" that you can only access if you've beaten the whole game (or at least the huge Dominion armada). Romulan Wars The sequel to FlashTrek, Romulan Wars begins in the 22nd century with the Earth-Romulan War. It progresses through the years, passing the TOS era and the TNG era in other levels, landing you in the Star Trek: Nemesis time period, fending off a Borg attack on Earth. The game ends with an interesting note, that reads "Strangely enough, nobody wonders how you lived to be over 400 years old!". Assault Assault was a "Defend the Castle"-type of game, allowing you to build starships that had various special weapons. You accumulated money (yes,money) by destroying enemy ships. You could upgrade your starbase's shields and weaponry as well. Broken Mirror Broken Mirror is the most recently-released game in the FlashTrek series. It is the most extensive and complex game by Vex Xiang. The player chooses from a number of races (Earth Empire, Klingon, Ferengi, and others) and begins as a lowly, insignificant nobody who slowly works their way up through trading and claiming planets for their empire. Broken Mirror 2 This game is still in Beta testing. It will be built on Broken Mirror's engine, and will incorporate many new features. There is no release date as of this writing. External Links *FlashTrek - the original game *FlashTrek: Romulan Wars - sequel to FlashTrek *FlashTrek: Assault Netrek Netrek is a 16-player freeware online multiplayer strategy game, based on the Star Trek Universe. The goal of the game is to conquer the galaxy by joining of the four forces: * Federation * Romulans * Klingons * Orions There are several types of ships available and the player has to fulfil many tasks at the same time. The required software is available for many different operating systems and can be downloaded for free. Star Trek: Rescue! Star Trek: Rescue! 1.6 was an action adventure game for the Macintosh platform of computers released in 1993, and is based on the series Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was developed by programmer Tom Spreen who lives in Canada, and was the predecessor to the final version of the game, Rescue! 2.0.5. The basis for Rescue! 1.6 is as the name incinuates: to rescue, in this case, to evacuate Federation outposts of their colonists because of a recurring Romulan threat. Players take control of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) which is viewed on the main viewer portion of the game, and beam down away teams to oversee the evacuation, and then proceed to other planets' outposts to the completion of the mission. Players then have the option of staying to destroy the remainder of the Romulan threat, or to end the session of the game. Despite the simplicity of the game plot it has proven to be an incredibly addictive game, particularly at the harder levels. Beginning the Game At the start, players can choose the number of outposts to evacuate in their mission, up to a maximum of nine, as well as the number of Romulan Warbirds they would like to contend against. A higher level of outposts and a higher level of Romulans increases the score a player can achieve. There are three pre-set levels of difficulty: the Cadet's game; the Captain's game; and the Admiral's game. Layout of the Game The game begins with a friendly female voice (sounding somewhat similar to the Enterprises' computer) saying: "Welcome aboard the Enterprise." The lay-out of the game gives the player a wide variety of screens to monitor whilst in play, including: *the main viewer, where the player controls the Enterprise, attacks the Romulans, and beams down away teams to the planets. Players can also click on any area of the screen and hit the enter key, which will move the ship to that position. *long range sensor to see where non-cloaked Warbirds are located, as well as the position of outposts and Starbases. If an outpost which has not been evacuated is being attacked, the number of the planet (1-9) will flash. Players can also click on any part of the long range sensor screen and hit enter, and the ship will automatically warp to that position on the screen. *the weapons console, or tactical, which lists the number of photon torpedoes left on the ship (it starts with ten and can be subsequently replenished by docking with a Starbase. It also provides phaser power reserves, and total ship power, the latter of which drains quickly if the player sets the ship's speed to high warp levels. Here players can adjust the strength of the phasers, from miniumum to maximum. Higher energy settings destroy Warbirds easily, but is a great burden on energy supplies. *the conn screen navigates the ship. There are several automatic commands (such as find nearest outpost, find nearest Romulan, nearest Starbase, and chase mode) which will automatically move the ship to where the player desires. The warp speed level can be adjusted as well as the impulse speed when the player is maneuevering around near planets or Starbases. Players can also manually input a number of degree (0-360) to tell the ship which way to travel; 0 being up, 180 being down, and so on. This is an incredibly handy feature especialy since the game allows you to for example, go left over the edge of the screen on the long range sensors; this will then automatically transport the Enterprise to the far right edge of the screen. Players can also start and stop the engines manually. *the engineering screen tells the player the condition of the various systems on board the ship, such as transporters, warp drive, etc. When the ship is attacked by Romulans, a voice will cry out "Shields!" warning the player to raise shields because attack is imminent. However if the player does not heed the warning in due time, or the ship is just damaged during attack, various systems will be knocked off-line. A player can prioritize repairs by clicking on a small wrench icon, and moving it to where they would like repairs to occur most quickly. Repair times appear in hours (although obviously take mere seconds to repair in some cases). *the text box is just a visual relay of the various actions of the ship, such as course settings, reports of outposts being attacked, and so on. In a very clever move, the programmer allows players to save on energy by reducing the number of stations being used; e.g. by closing all but the main viewer screen, the Enterprise will use far less power in the game. Game Play As noted, the object of the game is to rescue the inhabitants of the outposts and safely evacuate them to a Starbase before being annihilated by the Romulans. This can be an easy task with minimal planets chosen which are close by, or very difficult if the planets are situated far away from each other, thus draining power and perhaps making added docking to the Starbases required. Increased dockings at Starbase decreases one's score, so players tend to avoid this as much as possible. However, the Starbase is also a valuable ally, especially if being followed by a swarm of Romulan ships, and even more so if some of those Romulan ships are the incredibly strong cloaked Superhawk Romulan ships. The Starbase has a high level of hit points and can sustain heavy damage, and can also destroy attacking Warbirds. However, points will be deducted if the Starbase makes the kill for you. Many players often choose to stay to destroy the Romulans after rescuing the colonists. This can be a great way to up one's points, however if a player finds themselves attacked by a swarm, or they lose energy or the use of their weapons in an attack, they will quickly find themselves destroyed, in which the mission automatically ends. Thankfully energy reserves can be replenished by keeping the ship in a static, stationary mode on the screen. However this makes the ship highly prone to Romulan attack. Ending the Game The end of the game can occur in the following ways, after which a report will appear accounting for score, colonists rescued, times docked at Starbase, Romulans destroyed, casualties (on board the ship or of colonists, if any) and length of game play: *destruction of the Enterprise *player quitting *rescuing all the colonists to a Starbase and not pursuing the Romulans, OR *rescuing all the colonists and destroying all the Romulans Sound Effects The sound effects used in the game are all based on those incorporated in the TV show made by Paramount, including the phasers, the transporter, and even the trademark humming of the sensors while the Enterprise moves in warp and impulse. Copyright Issues Mr. Spreen's game was not licensed by Paramount and thus he was challenged by the company. Mr. Spreen's sequel was still very heavily based on the original Rescue! 1.6, but was altered in such a way as to not offend Paramount. It however was not enough and Mr. Spreen did not pursue any other Rescue! versions since that time. SoloTrek SoloTrekII SoloTrek II is a freeware "Star Trek Battle Simulator" released in October 1996 for the Amiga home computer system, and is the sequel to SoloTrek. The game was developed by C. Edward Stewart & Ryan M. Gibb ("FBN Software"). The timeline for the game is not explicitly stated however as Jem'Hadar ships appear from time to time, it can be assumed that the game takes place prior to or during the Dominion War. It is a hostile time in the Alpha Quadrant. The Klingon Empire, Romulan Empire, Cardassian Union and Ferengi Alliance all declare war upon one another as well as declaring war on the United Federation of Planets. At the same time, Borg cubes begin to make their presence known once more, in addition to sightings of Jem'Hadar ships. In the game you can take control of a ship from either the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulation Empire, Cardassian Union or the Ferengi Alliance. Your mission is to simply chart the region. This involves sending away teams to planets, scanning comets, mining asteroids belts, sweeping nebulas, and dispatching any hostile vessels you encounter. Gameplay You control your ship which moves from sector to sector in a grid. The contents of each sector are randomly determined before the game begins. Your first actions upon loading the game are to choose your race, difficulty level, and then to name yourself and your ship. You begin in the sector designated as your race's homeworld (this is constant in the entire game and does not change, for example Earth is always locates at sector 01). The game features a fairly simple GUI with acompanying displays. You have viewscreens and scanners which display the contents of each sector. There is a text display which lists the contents of each sector and also displays some in-game messages, such as the outcome of an Away Team mission. There is a Tactical display which lists other vessels in the area by name, class and race. There are also a series of buttons which allow you to perform several actions including transferring power between different systems, jumping to warp speed (instantaneous transport to another sector) issue repair orders, and other commands listed below. The game features currency in the form of Energy. Energy can be allocated to ships systems but is also used to trade for goods and services at Starbases, and can be harvested from a variety of sources. As well as any number of vessels from the game's races, each sector can contain: * A planet. You can send an Away Team here. * An asteroid belt. * A nebula. * A comet. Asteroid belts, nebulas and comets are sources of Energy and can be harvested. Asterboid belts are mined using phasers, nebulas can be swept, and comets can be caught in tractor beams. Once this action has been performed successfully, the target vanishes. You can send an Away Team to a planet, which yields a random result which may have a positive or negative impact on gameplay, if any impact at all. As the outcome is randomly generated from a pre-determined list of possibilities, it is not unlikely to encounter the same outcome on multiplayer planets. As an example, it is possible to discover the Iconian weapon more than once. Planets can only be beamed down to once; when you beam down to a planet you have visited previously you are presented with a message informing you that you have been here before. Sending an Away Team to your home planet allows you to take from the planet's total Energy reserves. Away Teams sent to homeworlds of other races will be killed. Depending on the difficulty level you choose, you will start with a different number of crew. The easiest mode ("Cadet") has you starting with 100. The crew is mostly represented as a number and has very little baring on the gameplay, although you cannot operate your ship with a crew fewer than 2. Amongst your crew is an Chief Engineer. His level of training is represented below the Sensor Display based on Starfleet ranks from Ensign to Captain. The higher the rank, the faster systems can be repaired if damaged. Your Chief Engineer can be trained at Starbases at a cost of 50 Energy Units per training session. As an example, an Ensign may take up to 16 turns to repair engines, while a Captain repairs systems almost instantaneously. Some events occur randomly within the game, not unlike random enemy encounters in some RPG games. As with Away Team missions, these can have positive or negative outcomes, if they have an outcome at all. Some of the random encounters are listed below. * You may come across Captain Montgomery Scott. He will train your Engineer to Captain level. If your Chief Engineer is already a Captain, you will be greeted with a very brief message simply stating "Good flying to you." This encounter is based on TNG episode "Relics". * An encounter with the Borg, usually preceeded by the warning message "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." Borg cubes are extremely difficult to destroy, and unlike other random enoucnters Borg cubes generally remain in the sector where they were encountered. * Nagilum may appear, asking you to sacrifice half of your crew. You may optionally counteract this by activating the Self-Destruct (which can then be deactivated once the encounter has finished), or allow half of your crew to perish. Nagilum will occasionally call your bluff and kill half of your crew anyway. * The Pirates from TNG double-parter "Gambit" will appear, demanding all of your Energy reserves. If you do not surrender the reserves, they will attack your ship leaving it crippled but salvagable. If you encounter them a second time and still refuse to surrender, you are instant destroyed. * Q appears on occasion, accompanied by a brief clip from the end "Mexican band" sequence from "Deja Q". The outcome of his appearances are entirely random. He will sometimes whisk you away to a distant part of the galaxy (á la "Q Who?"). In the original build of SoloTrek II, if you played the game on an AGA Amiga, encountering Q would crash the game. This was remedied in a patch release one month and one day after the initial release of the game. * The Bynars (erroneously spelt "Binars" in the game) may take control of your ship and warp you to the Binar homeworld. Landing an Away Team on the planet is no different from any other planet. * The Traveler may appear, resulting in your ship travelling to a random sector. * The ship may run into Quantum filaments, causing shipwide damage. Random events can still occur while you are repairing your ship, often while you are trying to pair damage from another random event. External links *Original game *AGA patch (fixes Q crash bug) Star Trek: A Call to Duty Star Trek: A Call to Duty (abbreviated ACTD) was made public in 1996 with the creation of the Star Trek: The Continuum website by MSN. It hoped to provide an online chat based role-playing experience to members of the ISP similar. Serving as the first official online role-playing organization of the Star Trek website, it lost sponsorship in 2000. The RPG was originally formed out of an organization called Virtual Trek (abbreviated vTrek) operating on The Microsoft Network (MSN) in May 1995. It apparently boasted an advanced sim fleet of approximately ten sims with somewhere near one hundred members. When an affiliation agreement was signed in 1996 with organization head Chad Morrett for the group to provide role-playing games on Star Trek: The Continuum, the organization's publicly advertised name changed http://startrek.acalltoduty.com/history/index.html. The establishment of this organization, and attempts to make it successful, are what many contribute to legal action by Paramount Pictures against America Online in 1997. When Paramount Digital Entertainment refused to renew MSN's contract to run the official website in January 1998, Star Trek: A Call To Duty remained active on the IRC based chat system of the site. However, by January 2000 the organization had lost sponsorship by Paramount Digital Entertainment. The official Star Trek website would not recognize and advertise another role-playing group until 2002 with the establishment of the Star Trek Simulation Forum (STSF). ACTD moved onto its own servers as a result. As of 2006, ACTD operates 44 online games, in IRC, Newsfleet, and PBeM divisions. An integrated 'Subspace' system, where each ship has their own board, provides a place to chat as well as a place where officers logs are posted, and the mailing list archives post a public record of played missions. External links * [http://startrek.acalltoduty.com Official Star Trek: A Call To Duty Website] * ST:ACTD Wiki Category:Star Trek Fan Fan Fan